Chinese MALE, HALE (and rotary, small, suicide) UAV/UCAV

The TB-2 is the cheap strike UAV of the world. Turkish military fans and nationalists have used its application in Ukraine and Middle East/North Africa warzones to promote the idea that TB-2 is a high tier MALE strike UAV when it is a cheap, low tier, barely MALE strike UAV.

This thing needs to be cheaper and offer more capability overall compared to the TB-2 to get a slice of the market. For everything higher end than TB-2, China has had literally about a dozen high tier UAVs for around a decade if not more.

tankphobia said:

The customer base is probably the opposite of Turkish ones, I'd imagine there's plenty of second/third world militaries that are interested in a no strings attached cheap strike uav.

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I don't think selling the TB2 will come with any strings attached.

wifi999 said:

I don't think selling the TB2 will come with any strings attached.

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Well for example turkey wouldn't sell to Russia. China is far less politically sensitive against exporting mid-low end weapons to all corners of the world. There are plenty of states that have yet to buy tb-2 and have the need for this niche in their military. China also have the scale to fufill such orders quickly without delay for customers.

Guangwei carbon fiber prepreg, composite material fuselage and components are used in AVIC's AR500 drone production.

China's carbon fiber/composite industry is contributing quite a bit to the higher end drone production.

00CuriousObserver said:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1990945167520465231

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143 knots seems to be too slow for a Eurofighter Typhoon to fly without stalling. Next time, they should choose slower foreign aircraft models for spoof.

ACuriousPLAFan said:

143 knots seems to be too slow for a Eurofighter Typhoon to fly without stalling. Next time, they should choose slower foreign aircraft models for spoof.

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It’s possible their doing it for training or trialing it out

ougoah said:

The TB-2 is the cheap strike UAV of the world. Turkish military fans and nationalists have used its application in Ukraine and Middle East/North Africa warzones to promote the idea that TB-2 is a high tier MALE strike UAV when it is a cheap, low tier, barely MALE strike UAV.

This thing needs to be cheaper and offer more capability overall compared to the TB-2 to get a slice of the market. For everything higher end than TB-2, China has had literally about a dozen high tier UAVs for around a decade if not more.

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It is remarkable how simple the TB-2 is when you look at it. No SATCOM, no radar, fixed landing gear, no EW system (though there are pods now), naturally aspirated general aviation engine... It was initially intended for COIN. Then Turkey had to use it in Northern Syria because its manned jets were too valuable risk against potential Russian actions. Then what happened? They realised older Russian-made SHORAD and MRAD used by Russian allies sucked against anything with a lower RCS than a 4th gen manned jet. And the TB-2 had a fairly low RCS because of its fully composite and very streamlined structure. The rest is history.